I often forget just how many conflicts there are in the world. Yesterday, I was in Gibraltar and came across one about which I had forgotten. I am speaking about the battle of wills between the UK and Spain over ownership of Gibraltar.
Gibraltar is a tiny area on the south coast of Spain that has been British since 1713. The entire territory is less than three square miles although it is densely populated. The Spanish want the territory back, but the British have no intention of leaving. It seems odd that Spain and the UK, as NATO allies and members of the EU would be jousting with each other over the territory, but they are. The latest tactics employed by the Spanish is to hold up traffic at the border by thoroughly searching vehicles, especially rental cars, for contraband cigarettes. Sometimes, it take three hours or nore to pass through customs.
The Spanish contend that Gibraltar is part of Spain and ought to be reunited with the rest of the country. Seen from a distance, this contention seems a bit strange given that Spain itself keeps control of places like Ceuta on the north coast of Africa on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Spain gets to keep this tiny part of Morocco, but the Spanish see it as a permanent insult that the Brits keep Gibraltar.
Fifty years ago or so, the Spanish closed the border with Gibraltar and it remained closed for about twenty years. One of the people with whom I spoke about this remembers this as a time when the hospital in Gibraltar was nicknamed "Lourdes" because after delivery of hospital supplies like oxygen were cut off by the Spanish, it was a miracle if anyone were cured at the hospital.
Gibraltar is a tiny area on the south coast of Spain that has been British since 1713. The entire territory is less than three square miles although it is densely populated. The Spanish want the territory back, but the British have no intention of leaving. It seems odd that Spain and the UK, as NATO allies and members of the EU would be jousting with each other over the territory, but they are. The latest tactics employed by the Spanish is to hold up traffic at the border by thoroughly searching vehicles, especially rental cars, for contraband cigarettes. Sometimes, it take three hours or nore to pass through customs.
The Spanish contend that Gibraltar is part of Spain and ought to be reunited with the rest of the country. Seen from a distance, this contention seems a bit strange given that Spain itself keeps control of places like Ceuta on the north coast of Africa on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Spain gets to keep this tiny part of Morocco, but the Spanish see it as a permanent insult that the Brits keep Gibraltar.
Fifty years ago or so, the Spanish closed the border with Gibraltar and it remained closed for about twenty years. One of the people with whom I spoke about this remembers this as a time when the hospital in Gibraltar was nicknamed "Lourdes" because after delivery of hospital supplies like oxygen were cut off by the Spanish, it was a miracle if anyone were cured at the hospital.
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